The Uncarved Blog

Today, Serbian pianist and harpist Nadja Dornik posted her performance of Claude Debussy’s Suite Bergamasque, L.75 – III. Clair de Lune. The whole composition was recorded on August 30, 2022 at the Belgrade Philharmonic Concert Hall, including the first and second movements — I. Prélude and II. Menuet — posted 4 and 3 weeks earlier, respectively.

Historically, Clair de Lune, was a French poem written by Paul Verlaine in 1869, and became the inspiration for the third and most famous movement of Debussy’s 1890 Suite Bergamasque of the same name.

You can actually hear Debussy playing Clair de Lune (1913), recorded on a piano roll, Claude Debussy plays Debussy. It is included in the Complete recordings made by Claude Debussy: The Composer as Pianist. Compilation from all Debussy recordings available “Claude Debussy Plays His Finest Works” (1904-1913).

Also enjoy listening to Kristan Toczko, one of Canada’s premier harpists, perform Debussy’s romantic composition, Clair de Lune. That post contains links to performances by famous pianists and other musicians, some on unusual instruments, recorded for the celebration of Debussy’s life and music in 2018, the centennial of his passing.  

In an earlier post, Nadja Dornik transcribed and performed a stunningly beautiful version for harp of Frédéric Chopin’s Fantaisie-Impromptu.

See Canadian pioneer filmmaker Norman McLaren’s 1968 NFB film ‘Pas de deux’ for a truly spellbinding aesthetic experience. Predating digital effects, this masterpiece won many national and international awards.

‘Pas de deux’ was nominated as ‘Duo’ for Best Live Action Short Subject at the 41st Academy Awards (April 14, 1969) to honor the films of 1968. It was the NFB’s 24th Oscar®-nominated film at the time.

Some other amazing artists I’ve been inspired by and written about are available in the Archive of the ‘Music’ Category on The Uncarved Blog.

Tags: claire de lune, classical music, claude debussy, harp music, harpist, Nadja Dornik, romantic music

This entry was posted on March 18, 2023 at 3:42 pm and is filed under Music, Peace, Videos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.